Oftentimes, a maintenance process encompasses retrieval, analysis and dissemination of appropriate information to enable decision making regarding preventative maintenance and thus, preempting avoidable repairs or delays. However, such processing typically involves a predominantly manual management and analysis of the maintenance-related information and subsequent distribution of the maintenance decision support information. Because of the inherent delay associated with the predominantly manual maintenance process, under these circumstances, a variety of problems such as, but not limited to, increased maintenance cost and reduced operational efficiency may result. Even worse, these maintenance-related problems could become exacerbated as the complexities increase.
More specifically, a maintenance process of highly complex machines such as air-borne vehicles is complicated, as the amount and type of the maintenance-related information collected from disparate sources is significantly large. In addition, appropriate processing of such maintenance-related information to derive a maintenance decision can be a daunting task. For instance, in an aircraft operation, multiple aircraft systems are constantly monitored by flight data acquisition systems to acquire maintenance-related information. The Air Transport Association (ATA) has categorized the monitored aircraft systems in different groups. Such monitored aircraft systems generally include Air Conditioning, Auto Flight, Communications, Fire Protection, Flight Controls, Fuel, Hydraulic Power, Indicating/Recording System, Landing Gear, Navigation, Oxygen, Pneumatic, Onboard Maintenance, Informational, Airborne Auxiliary Power, and Stabilizer. As these aircraft systems are monitored, aircraft data associated therewith, often referred to as “removal or component data” can be readily collected via a variety of data transfer techniques, including but not limited to, Flight Data Recorders (FDRs), Tape and Optical Disk Recovery, Digital Media Recovery (i.e. PCMCIA cards), Aircraft Communications and Reporting Systems (ACARs), VHF Digital Air to Ground Communications (VDLM2), Satellite Air to Ground Data Communications (SATCOM) High Frequency Air to Ground Wireless Data Communication Links (HFDL), and/or Wireless Ground Data Communication Links (GDL).
A typical aircraft maintenance process, for example, for a regularly scheduled service generally entails a manual analysis of maintenance-related information such as aircraft data, often referred to as “maintenance analysis,” which may include manually examining the contents of the aircraft data associated with a particular component of an aircraft. By manually analyzing the aircraft data, a maintenance decision for that particular component of the aircraft may be derived. Contents of the maintenance decision, including maintenance decision support information, may be manually disseminated accordingly. As the maintenance must be completed under certain constraints, a suitable form of communication to disseminate this maintenance decision support information may be employed to issue warnings or recommend repair procedures in response to the maintenance-related information.
In this manner, to perform the maintenance analysis of the aircraft data, a sub-system or a component of an aircraft may be first closely monitored for a predetermined period of time. For example, a data acquisition and analysis system may acquire the aircraft data from multiple onboard sources and analyze the aircraft data to identify symptoms to determine the sub-system or the component operational failures, faults, events for providing maintenance-related information. The maintenance-related information provided by this system can enable the aircraft operators to reduce unscheduled mechanical delays and flight cancellations, thereby reducing bottom line costs.
Unfortunately, management and analysis of maintenance-related information for real-time trending and reporting performance data from one or more sub-systems or components can be difficult. Providing proactive maintenance analysis to minimize reactive maintenance could be even more difficult, as most operators fail to properly utilize the aircraft data for this purpose. Thus, accurate or specific decision support information for maintenance may not be provided prior to the occurrence of maintenance-related problems. Therefore, the operators may not, under these circumstances, benefit from the informational analysis of the maintenance-related information. Accordingly, a suitable transformation of the maintenance-related information is desirable that provides meaningful maintenance decision support information for performing proactive maintenance. Thus, an improved system and method for supporting maintenance decision is desired in the art.
Heretofore, the requirements of providing more proactive maintenance analysis and real-time reporting of a maintenance decision support information, in a manner without compromising accuracy referred to above have not been fully met. What is needed is a solution that simultaneously addresses all of these requirements.